It is not even an hour and a half into Australia Day yet, but some very rare good news on the abortion front has just emerged. This headline is just in, and it makes for great reading: “Croydon Clinic stops late-term abortions”. The very short article in the Herald Sun goes like this: “Australia’s only clinic offering late-term surgical abortions has scrapped them. The Croydon clinic will no longer give abortions to women post 24 weeks.
“Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson said she was concerned it could lead some women to pursue unsafe solutions. ‘The worst-case scenario is that it will lead to backyard abortions,’ Ms Wilson said. Marie Stopes International Australia CEO Maria Deveson Crabbe said it was in the process of taking over full management and ownership of the clinic, and the move to stop the service was an operational decision. It remains supportive of late-term abortions.”
The article itself is questionable in various ways. A number of clinics around the country had been performing late-term abortions. Many of these were done by the notorious Dr David Grundmann. I in fact had not long ago been at one of his clinics in Queensland. It too had been taken over by the pro-death body Marie Stopes International.
And the line spouted by Ms Wilson is just more pro-abortion propaganda. But the fact that this infamous Croydon clinic (not far from where I live here in Victoria) is actually stopping these gruesome baby-killing operations is a real nice bit of good news indeed.
For those unaware of what late-term abortion (also called partial-birth abortion, or D&X abortion) is all about, I refer you to these articles where the ghastly procedure is carefully explained:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2001/02/28/the-dx-abortion-method/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/1997/12/23/the-horror-of-late-term-abortion/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/05/20/late-term-baby-killing/
Let me cite one nurse’s testimony about all this. She had to take part in this, and it made her absolutely sick. This is part of her moving story: “I was present for three of these partial-birth procedures. It is the first one that I will describe to you in detail. The mother was six months pregnant (26 1/2 weeks). A doctor told her that the baby had Down Syndrome and she decided to have an abortion. She came in the first two days to have the laminaria inserted and changed, and she cried the whole time. On the third day she came in to receive the partial-birth procedure.
“Dr. Haskell brought the ultrasound in and hooked it up so that he could see the baby. On the ultrasound screen, I could see the heart beating. As Dr. Haskell watched the baby on the ultrasound screen, the baby’s heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen.
“Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby’s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby’s body and the arms – everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus.
“The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall.
“The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp. I was really completely unprepared for what I was seeing. I almost threw up as I watched the doctor do these things….
“Dr. Haskell delivered the baby’s head. He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw that baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he’d used. I saw the baby move in the pan. I asked another nurse and she said it was just ‘reflexes’.
“I have been a nurse for a long time and I have seen a lot of death – people maimed in auto accidents, gunshot wounds, you name it. I have seen surgical procedures of every sort. But in all my professional years, I had never witnessed anything like this.
“The woman wanted to see her baby, so they cleaned up the baby and put it in a blanket and handed the baby to her. She cried the whole time, and she kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry, please forgive me!’ She screamed and prayed to God to forgive her, and for that baby to forgive her, and she held him and rocked him, and told him that she loved him.
“I was crying too. That baby boy had the most perfect angelic face I have ever seen. And I couldn’t take it. After all the years I’ve been a nurse, I lost it. I excused myself and I ran to the bathroom … I cried and I prayed.”
In addition to her powerful story, these images (in simple sketches) clearly show what actually takes place during this abortion: www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/PBA_Images/PBA_Images_Heathers_Place.htm
So to have this diabolical abortion method no longer happening, at least at this one clinic, is terrific news, and a terrific victory for the pro-life cause. The truth is, there are very few doctors who want to perform these monstrous operations, and perhaps with Grundmann seemingly out of the picture, no one else is willing to do them, even though they are a real money-maker.
Of course all abortion kills an unborn baby, so all abortion is morally reprehensible. But the late-term abortion method is nothing other than infanticide. Thus while this decision is only a start, it is a very good start indeed. It is well worth some major celebration.
There are many who deserve credit for this, including those who have targeted the Croydon clinic with peaceful vigils, prayer marches, and so on. Well done to all the pro-life troops who have been involved in so many different ways with this over the years. You are true champions.
This story tells us that genuine success is certainly possible. Sure, it means a lot of hard work, time, effort and sacrifice. But it all pays off in the end. If Australia Day is meant to be a time of celebrating the birth of a nation, how fitting that this news should arrive today, with at least some unborn babies being allowed a chance at birth.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/croydon-clinic-stops-late-term-abortions/story-fn7x8me2-1226253813048?fb_ref=rec-bot&fb_source=home_multiline
http://judiciary.house.gov/legacy/215.htm
[1044 words]